Executive Director Morey Schapira

Morey Schapira comes to our region with a wealth of experience as both an upper level business professional and a strong lay leader in our Jewish community. Morey is originally from Chicago and attended a traditional mid-west synagogue. In high school he attended a four-day-a-week Hebrew High program as well as attending Spertus College of Jewish Studies. As an undergraduate at Case Western Reserve University he headed up Hillel and the UJA campaign. He later moved to Boston and became a research scientist and obtained his M.B.A. from Harvard University. While in Boston he worked with the Boston University graduate students at Hillel. He also was president of the New England chapter of the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry.

In his work in the Soviet Jewry movement, Morey was both a local and national president. He worked with the local groups around the country which provided him the opportunity to speak in various Jewish communities. He spoke to synagogues, did press interviews, and briefed United States congressmen, senators and members of the cabinet on Soviet Jewry. Morey and his wife Barbara moved to the West Coast and joined Congregation Kol Emeth in Palo Alto. All three of their children celebrated their B'nai Mitzvahs and participated in USY at Kol Emeth and attended the South Peninsula Hebrew Day School.

At Kol Emeth, Morey served on the Board of Directors before focusing on other volunteer work in the Jewish Community. Morey is a past vice president of the South Peninsula Hebrew Day School. Years after his children graduated, Morey, at the request of the school, returned as president to help stabilize the school by encouraging and building solid relationships between the parents, the Board, and the Head Master. Morey ensured the school's future by instituting the school’s first endowment and personally raising $250,000 to kick off the endowment. The school has since received national accreditation.

Over the last 7 or 8 years Morey has been an active supporter of Jewish students on local San Francisco Bay area campuses. He notes that the campuses are hostile environments for anyone supporting Israel. Morey and others sit and meet with the Jewish students, listen to them, and give them suggestions that can empower them. They provide a combination of moral support, funding, and positive stories and resources about Israel.

Morey recently chaired the Kol Emeth Strategic Planning Committee. It was a one-year study that led to a working document of which the synagogue is implementing many of the recommendations.

Professionally, over the last twenty-plus years Morey has been either a vice president or CEO of high-tech organizations of as many as 45 people and budgets of $7-8 million. He has a strong successful background in marketing which utilizes his management style of building relationships, open communications, setting clear objectives, inspiring and motivating others and a team approach.

You can contact Morey at Schapira@uscj.org.

Adapted from the website of the Pacific Northwest Region.